Building/Revamping A Stock On A Budget

Hello Everyone,

In this post I take a flimsy stock off of a Savage Model 12FV Pre-Accutrigger and make it a little sturdier, a little heavier and a better color. I will go step by step on the process of what I did from start to finish with pictures.

Here is the basic materials list for the build.

1. Two 1oz tubes of epoxy From my local Harbor Freight $7
2. One Can of Rust-oleum Textured Paint, Sand Stone Color $6
3. Couple pounds of sand from my local sand dune $0
4. Project Foam remnants $0
5. Piece of 180 grit Sand Paper $0 

Most of the items I had laying around already, so the total cost for my stock was around $13.

Rifle Before Modification

Nothing special just a Savage Arms Model 12FV chambered in .223. The only thing I don't like is how flimsy the stock is at the point where the bi-pod attaches. It is all hollowed out with just a skeleton supporting the sides.

Stripping It Down

• Photo to the left is the stock stripped down

• Photo above is the skeleton support around the forend

Making The Forend Stronger With Epoxy

•  Photo to the right is the two tubes of epoxy mixed and applied into the forend skeleton.
• Filled up to the bottom of the barrel channel, allows a full floated barrel still.
• I dammed off the area around the nut for the front swivel so the epoxy will not interfere with nut.
• Made sure I kept the epoxy out of the area for the action and recoil lug.

Adding Some Weight

 

 

• Top Left, Hollowed out stock, was filled with foam.
• Top Center, Foam Template for plugging end to keep sand in.
• Top Right, Stock filled with sand.
• Bottom Center, Filled with sand, plugged and glued.

Prepping For Paint

I sanded down all the rough spots, cleaned up the epoxy residue and masking taped the holes.

 Painting

Put about four light coats on, then did some touch up around the trigger an action area.

And The Final Product

 Reassembled the rifle, checked the barrel with a dollar bill to make sure it was still free floated an nothing protruding hitting the barrel and made sure the action was not binding in anyway an torqued properly.

That is all for now, I might update with some more information later on if it has improved the accuracy of the rifle.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog, hope this helps you if you need to budget build or revamp a stock.

Rex

Part Three Of Three. Rifle Purchasing

Good Day Everyone,

Well this is the last of the three part series on firearm purchasing. Today will be on Rifle Purchase(CenterFire, No Rimfire) as the main title states. Lets get to the subject.

Rifle purchase, like all the other posts it is all on what your needs and wants, from a AR platform to a Target rifle and everything in between, I will expand on these in the next few paragraphs. Also is the availability of ammo for the type of firearm you want/need.

Rifle types, AR platform, Bolt action, Pump/Lever and Semi-Auto and Black Powder to name a few. Shooting Types include, Target/Competition(I will include Paper, steel, 3gun etc. in this,) Plinking, Hunting, Tactical and just a All around gun (Maybe for a pickup or farm and ranch use.)

AR Style Platform

Is a great all around firearm, used in all types of shooting from Long Range Target, Plinking, Hunting, Tactical or even a all around gun.

The good thing about the AR platform in can be built and Accessorized to any type of shooting you prefer. Also now days the caliber choices are not limited to the .223/5.56 or the .308/7.62, you have choices in 6.5mm, .300 AAC and many more to suit your needs.

Bolt Action Rifle

Is your basic most common firearm found. Used in most every shooting type found, Hunting, Target/Competition, Plinking, All around and Tactical(as in sniper.)

The bolt action Rifle comes in many different calibers and options, From .17 to .50 caliber. Options include barrel size/length, stock type, magazine or clip fed, caliber types can range from over the counter caliber to custom made "Wildcat" calibers. Can be accessorized and gunsmithed to your needs.

Semi Auto Rifle(Not AR) Pump Action And Lever Actions

I am grouping these together due to limited amount of calibers, accessories an options on these style of rifles and my limited knowledge on this group.

Gonna be limited on calibers and manufactures for the pump and Semi Autos, lever actions are more readily available with more option on calibers and styles. I believe the Pumps and Semi are limited to your basic Hunting calibers.

All three styles are great all around firearms for a pickup, riding on a ranch or farm, hunting. The lever actions are also used in the cowboy action competitions.

Black Powder

I am limited on knowledge with this style of firearm, do have a general knowledge of the options. Main calibers are .45, .50 and maybe .65(I believe)

Options include the old style muzzle loader/flintlock and the new style breech style hunting rifles. Also used in Long Range Black Powder competitions out to 1000 yards! I do see some black powder used in the cowboy action competitions.

I don't have to much on this subject due to my limited knowledge and me not researching it due to me not being interested in the subject.

Post Overview

I hope this gives you some help on making your rifle purchase, but it all comes down to what you need or want. From home protection, to targets an plinking  and hunting. Calibers are a big thing now due to the prices and amount of ammo on the shelves now. You will find more of the military and tactical calibers nowadays on the shelves, most older military rounds are easy to find as well.

Thanks For Reading,
Rex

Review Of Sierra 22 Cal. 69Gr HPBT Match Bullets. 01/02/2016

Hello Everyone,

Post Overview

Recently I have been interested in stretching my target shooting out a little farther than the 100 yard line either in the prone or bench position. I have been contemplating on buying a new rifle for the purpose or just re-purposing another. I'm wanting to do the NRA 300/600 yard prone matches at my local range, so I figured I would go with a bolt action 22 caliber centerfire with a heavy bullet. I had three option to go with, one had to slow of a twist to stabilize a heavy bullet(22-250), one is to sentimental to me to do any modifications(222) and low and be hold my hidden jewel, my Savage Arms Model 12 FV(I believe) pre-accutrigger, I figured it had a slow twist rate for the lighter varmint bullets, just for the heck of it I checked the twist rate multiple times each time it came out 1in 9" SCORE!! I can shoot heavier bullets. So I am going to build off of that for now and develop some loads for it.

Review Information

This review will be continued in the future as my information comes in. As I am writing this I have a few loads worked up and I will be trying them out tomorrow and reporting the information back on here of what I find. I working on load development for the above mentioned rifle, I wanted a heavy bullet out of my 223 that would work with my twist rate and reach above the 2800 FPS speed without having a max powder charge creeping up on the max CUP pressures. So I am starting my loads with the Sierra 22 Cal 69 Grain Hollow Point Boat Tail(HPBT) Match, P/N 1380, Recommended twist rate 1 in 7-10".

Ok, to the bullets, Right out of the box I really like the size of the load information stickers they give you, always a plus when you can actually right on them. There are 100 bullets in the box, no more no less. I have randomly been weighing them to see how much they differ, so far it hasn't been over .001 grains on my scale. No defects of any kind and they are all shiny and bright.

So for the loads, I am starting first with the Hodgdon Benchmark Powder, as per there reloading data I went for a mid range charge at 22.5 grains, which should put me around 2850 FPS. Second will be IMR 4895, with a charge of 24 grains, which should be over 2868 FPS. Third and final will be the Accurate Powders 2015, with a charge of 21 grains, this is going to be about 2600 FPS, just to see how my results differ from the higher FPS.

All load data was found at these websites: IMR/Hodgdon and Accurate Powders

All Loads mentioned above are for information only not to be used unless researched for your firearms, please use all information available when hand loading ammunition, Manufactures Manual and websites, If you are unsure about your firearm contact the manufactures.

That will complete everything I have as of 01/02/2016
Thanks for Reading, Rex.

Range Report 01/03/2016

Hello all, here is how the loads look on paper. Weather conditions at the range are: 21F Degrees, Light Snow, less than 5 MPH head wind, did I mention cold.

Smallest groups are the Accurate 2015, Followed by the Hodgdon Benchmark and lastly the IMR 4895. All are very close, I want to see what the difference is when the temperature warms up. Below are the images of all the targets shot today.

Hodgdon Benchmark
















IMR 4895

Part Two Of Three, Shotgun Purchasing

Welcome to Part Two of a Three part series on Firearm Purchasing.

Shotgun Purchasing

Wants and Needs

The same goes with this post as in the last post, wants and needs. Those are your main reasoning behind your purchase. Identify your wants an needs, then weigh your choices and come up with a plan for your purchase.

Wants could be anything from brand to engraving and semi-auto to pump. Needs could be hunting to home defense.

Styles and Configurations

You can get shotguns in many different styles and configurations, I will go over the basics here but not to in depth.

Standard Pump Style, versatile gun, uses include home defense, hunting (slug and shot) and Shotgun sports(Trap mainly). Variety of barrel lengths, capacities and accessories.

Semi-Auto style, great for hunting(Shot), Shotgun sports(Trap, Skeet, Sporting Clays). Variety of barrels lengths and chokes for different hunting types(Upland game,waterfowl,turkey)

Over Under Style, great for hunting(Shot, Upland) and all shotgun sports. Very versatile shotgun if you are wanting to shoot many types of disciplines. Many upgrade parts available. Also available with one shotgun tube and one centerfire tube, Example .45 on top and 12 gauge on the bottom.

Gauges include but are not limited to 10,12,16,20,28,410. 10 being the most powerful(Waterfowl) and the 410 being the smallest more apt to squirrels and snakes

Overview

If your looking for home defense a pump shotgun will probably suit your needs the best, with many upgrades as in lights, lasers, shot types, slug types, gauges and sizes.

Hunting options will range on what types of hunting you will be doing. Waterfowl would be best suited with a semi-auto or pump, sometimes but rarely a over under. Upland game options are all the above types, Pump,Semi-auto and over under. Turkey hunting will be best suited with Pumps and Semi-auto, but also a over under. Deer most likely will be a pump slug gun, with rifles or smooth barrels.

Sporting options include all models, Trap shooting will work with all models. Skeet, Semi-Auto or Over under. Sporting Clay, Semi-Auto or Over under.

Hope this helps aid in you purchasing decisions, If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment and thanks for reading my Blog,
Rex

Firearm Purchasing..Part One Of a Three Part Series..Pistol Purchase

Hello All,

     Well its been a cold few days here locally, not much over 38F in they daytime, spent Sunday at the range for one of my Range Officer days, good thing we had the fire going inside the office, I had to make multiple trips inside when the range was cold to allow my extremities to warm up. Had a good turn out at the range for such a cold foggy day.

     This blog post will be Part one of a three part series on firearm purchasing. Part One will be on pistols, Semi Auto to keep it short. Part Two will be on Shotguns and Part Three on Rifles.

Pistol Purchase

     The two biggest items I believe are what you want, an what you need, when I purchase something I try to mix the two.For example, you want the 1911 in 45ACP but you need something for home defense or personal protection. With this post I hope to help you along with Pistol purchasing.

     Go over your wants, do you want to shoot it on the weekends? Shoot pistol Competition? Plink? Hunt? Upgrade capabilities?  There are many different brands that will cover those few things I mentioned, I believe the 1911 styled pistol has most of those covered in one package, with many different calibers available and different manufactures from inexpensive to high end.

     Now, go over your needs, did you originally start looking for pistols for home protection or personal defense? You will want a small frame, compact or sub-compact pistol for home protection or personal defense, easy to carry an conceal and easy to remove and keep in a lock box or safe in case of a home intruder.

    Let's weigh the two, with most of the larger frame pistols are made to be shot over and over, for competition, target shooting, hunting and plinking. But on the personal defense side, they are made to be shot a few times to get sighted in and familiar with then put away until the time arises when they are needed(Hopefully Never.)

    Another thing to look at now days, is ammo availability, see what your local store carries, then see what they seem to have at all times, that may influence your purchase as well. Do your reload? If so look at what reloading components are available for each caliber interests you. You may find 45ACP on the shelf all the time, but the 9mm components are just as available and cheaper.

    New or Used? You can find higher end pistols that have aftermarket parts available cheap, if you want to take the time to find them and then see a gunsmith and check the condition they are in. Or you can get a cheap low end gun new for the same price.

     It is all about you and what you want or need. I like to tinker and build stuff, so I would go for a used 1911 and build it up to my liking. Something I could go out and shoot on the weekends an maybe shoot competition if I wanted as well. On the other end for Home defense, personally I would look at what the local law enforcement are using, they are using there pistols for self defense, protecting the innocent and can't have a bulky side arm on there person. I think a lot of agencys use Glocks, Taurus and Sigs.

     Ad-ons, accesories and aftermarket parts are other things to look at, do you want the capability to add a Laser sight, Red dot sight or scope? Do you want to put a Picatinney rail on the side with a flashlight? Do you want to put on different grips, trigger upgrades, barrels and slides? Those are all items needing consideration when purchasing your pistol.

  I hope this helps you with your decision on your pistol purchase in the future, I will add more information if I can think of anything else to add. Here are a few of the many manufactures of quality pistols. Glock, Taurus, Beretta, Smith & Wesson, Ruger, Sig Sauer, Kimber, Springfield Armory, Colt and many more. And don't forget about foreign brands, they are readily available and some are of great quality.

Thanks For Reading,
Rex

Just Remembered this after I posted the blog, Keep in mind the layout of your house and materials it is made out of when choosing ammo, you don't want a bullet going through a wall hitting something you don't want hit. 

Youth Shooting Sports and Activities

Hello Everyone,

As I sit here at the laptop in the garage with the hum of my brass tumbler going in the corner, I noticed my son's special targets and figured I would write about youth shooting sports and activities.

His special targets are the 8" Birchwood Casey Dirty Bird Multi-Color Splattering,  he picked them out at the Local Wal-Mart(He is 5). Always going for tight groups I always steer towards the standard paper targets and never get the splatter style. But since he is young and in the world of technology, I try to get items that interests him and make him want to shoot good, specially since he is young an his mind wonders.

In this day of age with all the school shootings, terrorism and gun control advocates to name a few, I believe it is more important than ever to teach our youth PROPER gun safety, For as long as I can remember I was shooting BB guns and 22's and never once had a accident or even thought about using a gun to harm someone. One of the basic things I remember from my dad, Keep your finger off the trigger until your ready to shoot. Then I see Gun control advocates on TV holding up "Assault Rifles" telling the crowd how dangerous they are and low and behold they always have there fingers on the triggers. End of Rant!

Back to the topic, I know different parts of the country have different types of activities, so I follow different types of shooting sports on twitter, I see the US Rifle and pistol team, indoor teams and outdoor competitions. I like seeing youth being involved in various disciplines of shooting.

I think shooting aluminum cans is a great way for youth shooters to get started, start close and then keep moving them out farther and farther. Also for a little older youth, shotgun sports like trap and sporting clays would catch there attention and help them get started in the sport.

Indoor events range from air rifles/pistols to smallbore rifles/pistols and if your lucky enough to have them around you are a great way to shoot year around.

If you have a youth interested in shooting, get them involved in it, teach them safety first, safety safety safety. Then find something that attracts there attention and build off of that. If they like shooting cans, let them shoot them, if they like shooting targets, let them shoot them, if they want to shoot shotguns, let them shoot them. Get involved with your local range and get shooting.

Thanks for reading,
Rex  

Basic Shotgun Shell Selections

Hello All,

This post was a request from a fellow friend/shooter who is getting started into firearms and wanted some info on shotshell selections, lead only no steel. We will start out with upland bird, turkey, varmint, larger game and clay target shooting(Sorry no waterfowl yet.) I will try to stay with just the basics of off the shelf rounds, but this topic can open up a whole can of worms with off the shelf rounds and reloaded rounds. Don't forget about choke selections as well while reading this post.

Upland Bird Rounds

As stated above this is all of the shelf ammo, most manufactures offer the same shot as all the others. These will be all 2 3/4" Shell Length.

Let's start with Dove and Quail, your basic shot sizes you will be using in 7 1/2 and 8, depending on distance and bird size you may use 7 shot as well. Also shotshell shot will depend on gauge size as well for smaller birds you can go with a 20 gauge which will save on the destruction of smaller birds.

Pheasants, probably only be using a 12 gauge for these larger upland game birds. Basic shot size will be 6, you could go to a 5 if they are wild birds in open fields where your shots will be farther. If your shooting farmed birds in close cover, you could go down to a 7 shot if they are all close shots. Some people have different opinions on ammo in the the gun, some guys will load two 6 shots and a 5 for the last for the longer distance, and some will load two 6's and a 7. 

Turkey

Turkeys, these will be heavy loads to knock down these tough old birds. These will be 12 gauge 3" length shells. Basic shot size will be 5 and 6, some state have shot rules for turkey hunting. Not much to say about turkeys shotshell, a lot depends on barrel length, choke size and stealthiness. I will be talking a little about chokes at the end of this post.

Varmints

Let's  start with coyotes. These will be 12 gauge with choices from 2 3/4" to 3 1/2" length shells. Available options will be buck shot and slugs.

Buck shot used will be size, 1,4,00 and 000, slugs will be smaller less than 1oz rifled slugs for smooth barrels.

Squirrels have a few options to fit your need, these will be 12 gauge 2 3/4" shells, shot sizes will range from 4-6 depending on your need, food or just for pest eradication.

Deer

Buck shot and slugs will be your only choice for taking down deer or other larger game animals, these will be 12 gauge 2 3/4" to 3 1/2".

Buckshot will be sizes from 00 to 000. Slugs will be 1oz, rifled for smooth bore and sabots.

Target

This section will cover just a general overview of target shooting, I will not go into depth on each of the disciplines(trap,skeet,sporting clays) all will be 12 gauge 2 3/4" shells.

Shot size will be between 7-9 shot, 7 1/2 is widely popular for recreational shooters both for targets and some smaller upland bird, that size is most common in stores. I'd say over 95% who shoot target disciplines locally or professionally, reload, due to the fact they can tune the shotshell to there needs.

Chokes

Your choke will depend on a few things, game type, ranges, shot size/type and what you like. There are many different options fitting each and every combo of what you are shooting. Listed from the widest to the tightest group: Cylinder, Improved, Modified and Full. There many different variants of each one I listed.

Conclusion

Hope this helps anybody just starting out into the shotgunning world. Below I will ad a few links to in store shotshell brands, shot size charts and choke information below.

So long and thanks for reading.

Informative Links

Let me know if there are any links or brands you would like added to the list below.

Shotshell Brands

http://www.winchester.com/Products/shotshell-ammunition/Pages/default.aspx
http://www.remington.com/product-categories/ammunition.aspx?panel=1
https://www.federalpremium.com/products/shotshell.aspx
http://www.estatecartridge.com/
http://www.rstshells.com/
http://www.rioammo.com/
http://fiocchi.gunsamerica.com/ammunition/target-shotshell/

Shot Size Information

http://www.shotgunworld.com/amm.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shotgun_shell

Choke Tube Information

http://www.shotgunsportsmagazine.com/archive/jan10/story0110.html
http://www.briley.com/understandingshotgunchokesabriefexplanationbybriley.aspx